This invention relates generally to controllers operated by selective lingual placement. More particularly, it concerns lingual transducers and oral controllers providing intraoral photosensitive switch arrays the light beams of which are interruptible by selective tongue placement to signal, thus to control, a remote device such as a computer, and a related method.
Prior art oral controllers require the user to complete a circuit with the tongue to provide binary, or on/off, control of an external device. The problems with such controllers include their size and power requirements that render long-term, uninterrupted use uncomfortable if not impossible. The simplistic coding schema used with such prior art controllers greatly limit their versatility as general purpose controllers useful, for example, in the operation of a computer without tying the user's hands. It is also seen that real-time feedback to the users of such controllers as to the accuracy of their lingual placement is not emphasized. The use of electrically energized metallic contacts within a user's mouth can cause a mild electrical shock or tingling sensation and can leave a bitter taste.
As is evident from the plethora of languages and dialects having the subtlest of nuance, lingual control can be developed to a high degree in terms of repeatable shaping, moving and placing accuracy. Yet there have been no oral controllers that facilitate lingual control of complex apparatus without so discomforting their users so as to discourage use of such controllers.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a versatile oral controller of complex external apparatus such as a computer.
It is also an important object of the invention to provide such a controller that is safe, comfortable and easy to use.
Another object is to provide an oral controller that draws little power in normal operation whether in use or not, thereby to render it compact and lightweight.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a lingual transducer that relies on photosensitive switch arrays and selective lingual placement in the path of light beams for control thereof.
One other object is to provide such a controller with a coding scheme used in communication between a local transmitter and a remote receiver that provides a powerful and broad lingual vocabulary.
An equally important object is to provide the user of such a controller with audio feedback to assist in accurate tongue placement.
It is of course an object of the invention to provide such a controller that is easy to manufacture and cost-effective.
In very brief summary of the invention in its preferred embodiment, an oral controller having an at least partly intraoral lingual transducer portion including photosensitive switch detection and power supply circuitry; and having optionally an encoding and transmitting circuitry portion is provided. Low battery drain is made possible by supplying power to the controller circuitry and photosensitive switch array only upon the detected closure of a normally open switch on the mouthpiece which is closed when the mouthpiece is properly placed in the user's mouth, and by energizing the photosensitive switches only periodically at a low duty cycle. A versatile coding scheme potentially having nearly forty symbols or command elements is provided, and such selected codes are used to modulate an infrared carrier for transmission to a remote wireless receiver. A receiver decodes the coded symbols and provides for the control, for example, of relatively complex apparatus such as a computer. Preferably, an audible signal stream is generated by the transmitter as feedback to assist the user in accurate tongue placement and linguistic development.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent by reading the following description and by referring to the accompanying drawings.